Quartet N'Caged concert "Voice as an Instrument"

At the final concert of the workshop, scores that were born just recently — over the last few weeks — will be performed. The meeting of 12 young composers and vocalists of the renowned a cappella quartet N'Caged is that moment when laboratory work gains the status of public art.

The workshop "Voice as an Instrument" itself was born from a paradoxical observation: in conservatory instrumentation courses, the voice is absent. Although the voice is the oldest, most natural, and technically complex instrument, it falls outside the system of academic study. This gap is filled by the initiative launched by curators Katya Bochavar and Arina Zvereva. Over several years, the workshop has evolved from an experimental laboratory to a recognized educational platform where compositions have been created that became events in the world of contemporary academic music (one example is a piece by Sergey Shestakov, which won a nomination at the Art Theater Prize). This year, the poetic basis for all compositions is the poetry of Anatoly Zverev — a nonconformist artist whose spontaneous, explosive style of writing is close to the improvisational nature of vocal sound. In the AZ Museum, dedicated to this outstanding artist, these texts acquire a new dimension: now they are sung.

"This year, says Arina Zvereva about the selection approach, we tried our best to find a balance — to choose scores that are both useful for analysis in classes and will make the concert program interesting." The final concert is a demonstration of this balance. And confirmation that contemporary compositional education does not remain confined to classrooms. It takes to the stage — to the listener, to the sounding voice, to a real test of strength.